Seren Fawcett
Seren is a trained Healer for humans, animals and magical non-humans. She worked as a Regulator doing necropsies on creatures the field agents bring back, and performed experimentation people likely would rather not know about until budget cuts removed her position and those of many who worked under her. She regularly forgets to eat if she has better things to do and gets fanatical if you mention quidditch. She's also very, very Welsh and mutters to herself in the language all the time. She keeps Dexter Cadwallader's heart in a jar and Graham Pritchard wrapped around her finger. __TOC__ Seren Sian Fawcett Nicknames/Aliases: Ser, Nova (to her brother), Blue Bell (to her dad), Starfish (to Rabbit), any and all other plays on Seren or Star(enter ending here) to Rabbit or Pritch Age: 29 Date of Birth: 5 November 1978 Blood: Pure-blood Marital Status: Single Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Alumni: Ravenclaw Wand: 11 ¼", Myrtle, Swishy, Hippogryff talon Occupation: Healer for the Department of Mysteries Formerly: Head of Magical Non-Human Research and Medical Examiner Seren was in charge of the division of the Regulators that experimented on new creatures and new magical non-humans directly. She was in charge of all the research pertaining to these creatures and beings with Everrett Mac being her second-in-command. He focused on muggle scientific methods of research and experimentation while she focused on magical methods. The two worked very closely side by side and all experimentation and research that utilised muggle methods or equipment she put Everrett in charge of. She was first and foremost a medical examiner and as such Seren performed necropsies on any/all magical non-humans and creatures that came into Regulator possession. She documented their anatomy and physiology for future reference and performed post-mortem experimentation to gather any information that would help Regulators should they cross the species again. (Anthony Goldstein had been known to help out with the necropsies from time to time when she had loads of work and he had the time.) Seren also experimented on living specimens the Regulators brought in. She put the creatures/beings through a series of tests and experiments in order to gauge what their capabilities were and to test potential ways of killing them most effectively/safely while Everrett tested for ways of subduing and neutralising them. She worked closely with various researchers to find ways to deal with the new creatures/beings the Regulators came across on a daily basis. Seren actively sought ways to alter these new species which included but was not limited to gene therapy, genetic engineering, eugenics and cloning so that the species could be neutralised, made less harmful, be controlled or be made useful to society. Information on selected test subjects can be found here. Home: Seren owns a cottage in Hay-on-Wye, Wales just over the English/Welsh natural border of the River Wye which it overlooks. It was a gift from her parents, a coming home present. Finances: Seren is comfortable. She inherited a rather lot of money when she became of age and has made a generous enough wage since becoming a licensed Healer and Animal Healer. She’s also not one to have extravagant taste or indulge in much aside from books so she’s rather more well off than one would think. Seren, however, never speaks of money as she does have far better breeding than that. Household: It’s just Seren and her purple cat, Pique. Family Mother: Sian Fawcett (nee Bleddyn) - Sian is 54, a pure-blood and also full blooded Welsh. Sian is kind and patient, something that comes in very handy with her daughter at times. She’s a historian, focusing on various wars/battles in the wizarding world and the ways in which they have changed their world, for good or ill. Seren gets her analytical nature from her mother, as well as her tendency to curse in Welsh when frustrated. Father: Michael Fawcett - Michael is 57, English and owns the Fawcett family shop dealing in all types of leather goods, primarily custom made. It is from him that Seren found her fascination with dissection, watching him slaughter animals for their skin and often cutting up the meat for the family and selling the excess off to others when it came from an edible animal/creature. He also instilled in his daughter a respect for all living things, even though they slaughtered the animals for meat or skin, he taught her to revere life and not take it lightly. Siblings: Madoc Fawcett (35) - Madoc just barely survived the war. Being a Hit Wizard, he saw many of his friends and comrades fall during the battles. He did not, however, come out unscathed. There are many scars littering his body, arms and even face from the fighting. It’s also brought him out of his sort of innocence he had previously, making him much more serious than he’d ever been before. Other family: Seren’s paternal grandparents are dead, though her maternal grandparents are alive. The Fawcetts died previous to the war of natural causes. Her tad-cu (grandfather) is an ex-mediwizard and managed to avoid most of the fighting of the war simply by hiding out. Her mam-gu (grandmother) was a seamstress in her leisure and never held a formal job; she hid out with her husband and returned to their home in Gwynedd, Wales when the war ended. Her aunt on her mother’s side married a muggle. The entire family was killed during the war, making Seren and Madoc the last of the Bleddyn line. Her father’s brothers Jensen and Brian survived the war, however. Jensen, a confirmed bachelor and Brian’s family (he married a half-blood woman and had two children) live not too far off from Seren’s parents in Ottery St Catchpole. Relationship with each: Seren is very close with her brother, though they often seem to be separate sides of a coin. All her life she’d looked up to him and while they were never close as children, after she left Hogwarts and the war began they grew much closer to one another. She tries to write to him or have lunch with him once a week, but sometimes life is simply too busy. Her father, however, has always been the closest to Seren’s heart. She considers herself a “daddy’s girl” and tries to stop by his shop on her way to work daily. On Saturdays she goes to Ottery St Catchpole for family dinners, much to the delight of her mum. While they are not exceedingly tight knit, the Fawcett family is close enough that they rarely fight and generally have a fun time when together. Seren gets along very well with her mother, though rarely will confide in her or go to her for advice in the way she does with her father. Her grandparents are only seen on holidays for the most part. External Appearance: Seren is what you would call “low maintenance.” She doesn’t wear make-up almost ever and when she does it doesn’t typically get beyond mascara, eyeliner and lip balm. Her hair only gets pulled back so she can get it out of her face and otherwise would hang loose all the time. There’s never any product in her hair and it is anywhere from straight to wavy day to day simply dependent upon how long it spent in a towel after her shower before being allowed to air dry. While she’s very pretty, Seren actually isn’t at all aware of this fact. She’s not deluded and certainly doesn’t lack self-esteem, she just doesn’t think about her appearance much and if questioned she couldn’t actually come up with a complaint about it. Her mother, however, would complain that she's too skinny, which she is. Her tendency toward forgetting to eat has left Seren underweight, though not horribly so. Muggle clothing is never worn in public unless it is a requirement. She avoids most muggle areas for this reason. Given a choice she will always choose to wear robes under which are long skirts and shirts that leaves almost everything to the imagination. If she's alone she'll wear a more fitted tank top with her skirt and if she's out wandering the forest she's most often wearing jeans or hiking shorts, as weather permits. When forced to wear muggle clothing around others she favours long skirts, usually ones with excessive amounts of material such as circle skirts, and slightly baggy jeans with shirts that aren’t fitted. Obviously muggle clothing is a thorn in her side and when she’s stuck wearing something fitted you’ll often find her attempting to pull it away from her body. Most often Seren doesn’t quite look all there. She always seems to be occupied by distant thoughts or images. When she focuses on looking at anything there is a feeling that she's not really seeing the same things other people see. People who find themselves the object of her attention easily get the feeling she's looking through them, searching to see something beyond skin and hair and eyes. When she’s paying attention she’s quite good at lying with her face, but her eyes almost always give her away. When engaged in conversation she’s expressive and talks with her hands quite a bit. She’s quick with a smile and is generally in a good mood until someone proves themselves an idiot. Her scowl is an impeccable imitation of her mother’s which is likely the only reason why it is at all formidable. When truly angry, a rare occurrence, Seren practically seethes and it’s all too obvious in her eyes; it is very likely the only time she actually looks at all intimidating. By the end of the day she’s usually fairly dishevelled looking which is only heightened by how thin she is due to her tendency to forget to eat. Despite what level of exhaustion she is at Seren’s eyes are always bright and expressive, even when she’s caught up in her own head. When she’s spent some time in the sun Seren’s freckles become much more obvious. They go across her nose, the tops of her cheeks, her shoulders, the top of her back and her chest. Height: 170cm (5'7") Weight: 54.4kg (120lbs) Eyes: Bright chestnut Hair: Red. In the sun her hair glows an almost orange ruby colour from the natural highlights in it. Only during the winter months when she hasn't been outside much does her hair tend toward the more brownish/auburn shades of red. Usually her hair is closer to flame, orangey with a hint of fire engine red atop the natural red tones. Depending on the day it can vary anywhere from wavy to straight. She wears her hair long, hitting about the middle of her back. Style of Dress: Seren prefers wearing typical witches' robes. When walking amongst muggles she will favour jeans or a long skirt and a simple tee shirt or tank top. It makes her slightly uncomfortable, however, to show much of her figure so she tries to not wear anything too fitted, which is difficult with muggle clothing and why she prefers to wear robes. She doesn't tend to show a lot of skin, arms and shoulders only usually. If she's out hiking or camping she'll wear hiking shorts but this only tends to be around people she is close to. Most of the clothing she owns comes in shades of blue, green and grey with white and black also making frequent appearances. Very rarely is she seen in purple, red or orange and never in pink or anything pastel. She’s particularly fond of jewel tones. Gait: There is a tendency with Seren to walk very quickly, her stride matching the whirlwind pace of her mind. Even though she may not necessarily be paying the most attention to where exactly she is going all the time, Seren never appears confused or lost. If she is in a forest, a field or woods of any kind, however, she will meander and stroll. Her mind clears in such settings and as such she has a tendency to linger in her surroundings more. Manner of speech: Seren's voice is soft in sound, though not in volume. She isn't unusually quiet when she speaks and the softness of her speech contrasts with the strength of her voice, which tends to be confident and sure. The cadence of her voice is a melodic sing-song. When she speaks she very much sounds musical. Her Welsh accent is softer than it should be due to her growing up in England. She has affected a more southern accent from living in Powys for the past few years whereas she used to speak with a diluted version of the nasal Gwynedd accent before she moved back to the UK from Romania. Her Welsh accent is even present, though less so, when she speaks Latin and it only ever disappears entirely when she speaks Romanian. Often times Seren sounds very distracted because she's caught up thinking about other things at the same time. Her speech can be slow, lingering and hesitant because of this. Adversely, if she's speaking to someone about something she really enjoys talking about she will ramble at length and rather quickly. She mutters to herself very rapidly in Welsh, literally thinking aloud. When she speaks in a stream of consciousness in English people can find it difficult to follow her as she will speak so rapidly that the end of one word is being hitched onto by the beginning of the next. Posture: Excellent posture was drilled into Seren's head from a young age, her mother believing that a young lady did not slouch. Exhaustion often lends itself to slouching, whether it is caused by a long day at work or being drained emotionally. Typical scent: Her hair usually smells like raspberries and her skin smells of sweet cream. First Impression: Generally something along the lines of her being pretty but vacant/not really all there. Internal Personality: Seren easily comes off as a bit arrogant upon first glance. This has less to do with a superiority complex and more due to the fact that she's usually entirely tied up with her own thoughts and not particularly paying attention to other things or people. She isn't trying to ignore everyone intentionally, just some people. Though, if she hasn't seen a person in some time it can take her a bit to recall who he or she is. Seren has an excellent, and eidetic, memory but her head is so full of stuff and moves so quickly that she literally has to shove it all aside to pull out who the person is. It's kind of like a rather disorganised filing system in there. Until that happens she can be sort of awkward with the person she can't quite remember, but after a few minutes of adjustment and managing recollection she's fine. Over all, Seren is all brain. She's all about her thinky parts and she really likes other people's thinky parts. If your thinky parts are out of tune, malfunction or perhaps have loads of rust built up she's probably not going to like you. Seren has very little tolerance or patience for people she views as being considerably less intelligent than herself, especially if they insist upon spouting uninformed, inarticulate opinions about things the person clearly has no concept of but could become informed about. However, someone less intelligent but just as curious as herself who actively seeks some level of knowledge is often embraced by her. When she wants to be, Seren can be rather coldly logical and pragmatic. She can find a justification for many things, as undesirable as they may be. At times there is a tendency to question and scrutinize a thing (person, principle, concept, theory, historical event) down to the most minute detail simply to understand better. Other times Seren merely absorbs the information as presented and moves on. While she can fixate on details sometimes she will concentrate on the big picture to the detriment of nuance. Seren is strange. She never actually bothers trying to hide this fact at all. She mutters to herself in Welsh non-stop, gets lost in thought and will wander among trees for hours. Usually she's written off as "that crazy bird." Anyone paying attention may just find her stranger than they thought. She'll stop to speak to trees, talk of elements and gods as if they truly exist and seem to see things other people aren't seeing at all. There is an ethereal quality to her, both in the way she speaks and looks, but also in the way she reacts toward certain things. Seren has a very real bond with the world around her, specifically with the earth. She's not particularly at home or comfortable in cities and tends to be a bit tense whilst in them. She is, in all practicality, more nature sprite than human some days. Life is sacred to Seren and this view very much comes from her connection with earth and water. She can reconcile hurting a thing if it saves others, but she does not inflict pain on anything living lightly. While she is a Healer in vocation it is not simply an occupational quality for her. If she has the power to help a thing, to heal it, mend it, then she will. She will do this even at great risk to herself. Those who get to know her well enough will find Seren largely fearless. She worked with the dead as a medical examiner for too long to fear death. Her relationship to divinity and nature is strong and has taught her that all things have a cycle, all things must end. While she would not claim to fear the pain of death, she does not fear death itself. Pain, she has found, can be endured and dealt with. The only real fear she holds is that for others' pain, their suffering, not for her own. On the whole, Seren is rather warm and friendly to most anyone who is the same toward her own person. A smile is her natural expression when actually paying attention to the world around her and not solely wrapped up in her own thoughts. She can sometimes be easily distracted from conversation and lost to her own mind, which can be trying to the patience of some. A person who doesn't mind these sometimes frequent distractions will find a rather loyal friend. She is, however, also incredibly playful. She will start food fights, make you sprout a tail and do any number of other insane things with those of a similar temperament.(If you're her friend and she sends you one of your favourite sweets you probably should inspect it a great deal before actually consuming lest it turn into an eyeball or some such.) Her sense of humour only ever seems to turn sexual if there are sheep involved. Seren could be seen as a bit mischievous in the name of knowledge. She is easily convinced to try most things if they have intellectual merit. While the more dangerous things she does try to steer clear of, more benign challenges simply make her salivate over potential gained knowledge and what she could do with it. She has been known to engage in mischief simply for the sake of mischief, but such acts are usually confined to her brother as her victim. She has very few friends anymore who engage her playful or mischievous sides and so these aspects of her are rarely seen by many people at all. Absolutely anything even vaguely romantic does not occur to Seren. She doesn't realise when people are flirting with her at all. If someone's interested in her it could very easily be obvious to every single person in the world but her. If someone told her she wouldn't even believe it. There are so many other thoughts in her head and things to concern herself with that romance just isn't something she thinks of or assumes others are thinking of in regards to herself. She has a tendency to resort to being an awkward teenager when the topics of love, romance and the like are brought up in application to herself. Oddly enough, though, her discomfort with form-fitting muggle clothing ties into a belief that some things are simply not meant to be known to the public at large. Anyone she's not romantically involved with has no reason to know every curve of her body and for her that's something strictly reserved for someone she's chosen to share intimacy of that nature with. Political Views: She doesn’t take part in politics or hold any opinions on them unless someone is doing something that she sees are irresponsible and not worth the potential gains. If she can see no gain in the actions of a politician she will speak up about it. Mostly she doesn’t pay attention. Quirks/Habits: • Chews on her lower lip a lot. • Her attention can focus so absolutely that she completely blocks out all other things around her. This then requires physical contact, usually in the form of shaking, to get her attention. • Seren had once taken to charming a hippogriff femur to poke her whenever she needed to be somewhere for something. It would poke her harder and harder until she removed the charm. Needless to say she had an impressive collection of bruises on her ribs. Eventually she chose to charm a stuffed animal pygmy puff to smack her in the face. So far that option is working out much better. The femur is still about, bouncing around and stalking people it takes a liking to. • She's entirely oblivious to anyone flirting with, hitting on or romantically interested in her unless it is spelled out for her. Very clearly. Multiple times. Once she gets the hint she's not so oblivious anymore. • She forgets to eat if she's busy doing other things. This means that she sometimes goes days at a time without consuming anything other than tea and water. Other times she subsists off of breakfast foods or sandwiches for weeks. • When she realises she's been rambling on aloud in English while thinking she hadn't been speaking any of it she tends to clamp her hand over her mouth suddenly. She's not really bothered by it when she does it in Welsh. • She can get distracted by thoughts rather easily. • Seren doesn't swear often and she usually has to be rather annoyed or angry to do so. When she does swear it's usually in Welsh with the runner up being Romanian. Only very, very rarely will she curse in English. • She mutters to herself in Welsh and will sometimes actually forget to speak English to people if she's spent too much time in Wales or speaking to her mother extensively. • She really enjoys randomly saying things to people in Latin just to see how confused they look. • Seren is really good at the charm that causes a person to sprout a lamb's tail. She's equally adept at the one that causes their voice to change to bleating. (It started as creative revenge for people making stupid sheep jokes to her for being Welsh. Both were taught to her by her brother.) Strengths: Pragmatic, incredible memory retention, eidetic memory, intelligent, an extensive knowledge of physiology and anatomy across many species, analytical, great at interpreting data, extremely familiar with many mythological systems, friendly, decent artist (but she only draws the insides of dead things), sarcastic (how is that not a strength?), sense of humour (albeit an odd and fairly dry one), really doesn't care whether or not people like her, exceptionally perceptive. Magically charms, and transfigurations are where Seren's strongest talents lie. She can usually be shown a charm or transfiguration once and be able to perform the spell perfectly thanks to the way her memory works. She's also rather good with runes, always having found the mysteries of the runes and the magics they are used for to be infinitely intriguing. Interest once caught with Seren lends itself to unwavering dedication in study so she's become more than merely proficient with runes. She’s highly trained in healing magic not just for humans but for a wide array of magical creatures and magical non-humans, particularly all of the most common creatures such as house elves, centaurs, goblins, kneazles, merpeople, etc, as well as normal animals. Weaknesses: A little too thought-focused at times, a bit slow on the uptake while shifting through all the data in her head, unaware of the obvious sometimes, looks too deeply for meaning, no head for history at all, extreme workaholic, will one day become malnourished, snarky, will not suffer fools, incredibly intolerant of people she's identified as beneath her intelligence level, a bit cynical, has excellent aim with her wand but her aim is utter crap the rest of the time, strangely literal at times, sarcasm so dry it can be unclear if she's kidding or she's serious, puts in little effort to be liked by anyone. Astronomy was something she never latched onto quite. Seren really loves staring at the sky and she loved learning about some of the things but making star charts and memorising constellation upon constellation was just tedious and daft. Seren is notoriously bad with duelling. She knows the spells and has a rather impressive repertoire given her memory, but she is an inherently cerebral person. She is incapable of acting without thinking and because of that tendency to think first she is highly resistant to anyone teaching her to do anything which involves acting on impulse (though Merlin knows her older brother tried for some time to make her a better duellist). She can't fly for the life of her. Something about not having contact with the ground distracts her to the point that she's never figured out how to master the skill. The sky doesn't particularly seem fond of her, either. She's broken something every time she's tried to fly on her own. She loves heights, though, and adores being on a broom so long as someone else is in charge of the actual handling of it and all she has to do is hold on. Fears: She has an intense, paralysing fear of obliviation. She thinks of herself as her mind so wiping her memories (and all of her acquired knowledge) is something akin to destroying her life or killing her in a manner much more cruel than granting death. She has a fear of failure and a fear of flying alone, though she lacks any fear of heights. Philias: She has what may be viewed as an unhealthy love of dead things. She loves pocket watches, specifically. Seren has an intense love of nature and life (in the general sense of things being alive not the specific sense of human life). She also loves animals, children and just about anything bizarre or abnormal. Anomaly is fascinating. Hobbies/Interests: Mythology of all sorts, making up constellations of her own, dissection, studying various magical species, hiking, camping, reading, quidditch (watching, never playing), anatomy, physiology, clocks, theology, philosophy, art of ancient civilizations, muggle magical traditions, Creole magical tradition, Celtic ritual, cloning, genetic research, eugenics, Pique, books, skeletons, the Māori, North American natives, tribal rites of passage, ritual rites, human and animal sacrifice, anthropology, psychology. Favorite Belongings: Her library, her house, all her dissembled pocket watches, her collection of bones, her anatomical sketches and her purple cat named Pique (if she counts as a possession). Favourite places: Bucharest, Romania: Her first love. She fell in love with that city quicker than she’d ever taken to any place before and it still holds a significant place in her heart. Llyn Goddionduon: The only completely untouched lake in the Gwydir Forest in Wales. It’s where Seren went most often when she was younger and needed an escape. Her father would side along apparate her there and then come back hours later to get her. She came to here a few times after being taken by one of the two Eddas Gwydir Forest: She used to wander around the forest with her tad-cu in the summers growing up. Hay-on-Wye: Bibliophile paradise, how could she not love it? Her library: The most used room in her house, sometimes the only used room. Character secrets: She wouldn’t consider herself as having any secrets at all (because she’s boring). History Seren Fawcett was born 17th May 1979 to pure-blood parents, Sian and Michael Fawcett. Her older brother, Madoc, was born six years previous, which nearly made her an only child once she was five. Until then she tagged along, practically holding onto the back of his shirt wherever Madoc went. When she wasn't shadowing her older, and immensely tolerant, brother Seren was poking about her father's workshop. That was what initially sparked the fascination which essentially rules all of her interests, the fascination with how things work. The Fawcett family business, passed down from father to son, is a leather goods business which includes various items made from the skins of all sorts of animals and even sometimes the lesser non-magical creatures, the ones considered almost entirely animals anyway. Young Seren would poke about and stare at the muscles that were hidden beneath the now removed skins. Logically, she wanted to know what came after that. Thus her immense love of dissection was born, much to her mother's dismay. Madoc had left for Hogwarts and Seren spent her time holed up with anatomy books and learned to cut the slaughtered, skinless animals apart with her father. Her memory was quite good but the young girl always worried about forgetting something when it really mattered. Clearly she needed a way of recording things. Photos moved and that could make studying specific things more minutely difficult. Writing wasn't very effective really and Seren wasn't really able to articulate particularly well in writing anyway yet, being rather young. The solution then was to draw it. She wasn't very good at drawing at all, but she kept at it, determined to record the things she found on the odd occasion that her dad let her poke about inside something. As the years went on Seren got much better at drawing and managed to convince her dad to let her dissect things more often, even if she'd done it before already. Sian never really approved of her daughter cutting up dead things, claiming it wasn't very ladylike and certainly wasn't particularly attractive. Eventually her protests fell silent as she realised her daughter was too in love with it to stop anyway. Michael was just happy his daughter was noticing dead things and had yet to notice boys at all. In September of 1990 Seren was finally able to go to Hogwarts at last. She'd always idolized her brother, but the age gap made being very close a bit difficult. Though he did teach her minor magics whenever he'd come home for holiday breaks. He was also the responsible party for teaching her to curse in their mother's native Welsh, something her mother clearly didn’t approve of. Seren hoped when she got to Hogwarts that perhaps she'd get to hang out with him more. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be so. After six years of running around Ottery St Catchpole's hills, dissecting things, and enjoying having her mum and dad all to herself, Seren went off to Hogwarts. Her beloved older brother was a Hufflepuff. She was proud of him and had always been excited about the magic lessons he had with her over holiday. It had instilled in her a fondness for the house. To her great dismay, Seren was placed in Ravenclaw the moment the Sorting Hat touched her head. Madoc told her it wasn't so bad and offered her help with getting around the castle and in her classes should she need it. The hat, however, had a point and she never had a reason to request help from Madoc in the two years they shared the same school, except when she managed to get turned around and had no idea where she'd ended up, which only happened a handful of times. After Madoc left the school, Seren fell back into her familiar single child routine. It seemed her brother and she were not meant to be close, though they got along rather well. By the beginning of her third year Seren accepted it. She flourished in Charms, making it her best class. There didn't seem to be any classes she was particularly bad at. Seren realised the one thing she was really good at was not really magic, just learning. Astronomy held a particular fascination for the girl. Her days were spent in lessons and pursuing her own fascinations in the school library. Despite this face Seren was hardly hidden behind a tower of books all the time. She always attended Quidditch matches, an avid fan of the sport, and was sure to balance all the brain work with time for her few, but rather close, friends. Seren very much relished in figuring out how things worked while she was at school, which was something she could indulge in at school in a much broader array of things. All things. Magic, mechanisms, speech, all of it captured her avid attention. She'd learned to draw rather well by her fourth year. She had never meant for her drawing to ever be anything too spectacular, only accurate enough that she could sketch anatomical reference pictures that others would also be able utilise. She never counted this as a talent, though, only a tool to aid in her real talent: learning. The end of her seventh year at Hogwarts saw the beginning of the war. Truly it'd been simmering under the surface for some time, but it boiled over into a real altercation when the Death Eaters invaded the school. Seren had done what any logical person would do. She hid. She was a so-so dueller, though she was rather good at defensive magic. The problem was that Seren was simply not a fighter, her brain didn't work however it needed to in order to be quick with a spell in combat. There was a gene missing or a synapse that misfired or something, but while others battled it out she knew that hiding was truly her best bet. She simply didn’t have the reflexes necessary for a fight. It was for her startling lack of warrior instinct that Seren did not apply to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies to study for her dream job. She’d considered the fascination that working for the Department of Mysteries may sate, but she’d also considered she could end up despising whatever it was exactly that they did. Once being an Unspeakable was discarded due to the risk assessment given the lack of any definitive knowledge about the department Seren set her sights on what many would consider to be the obvious choice for her. Seren wanted to be a medical examiner; after all a human was the only creature she would never get to take apart with her own hands otherwise. She applied to the Romanian hospital for Healer training and was quickly accepted. Seren quickly picked up her life and moved to Bucharest, Romania, getting as far from the war as possible without leaving Europe. Once in Bucharest Seren did something rarely heard of. Healer training is a rigorous and time-consuming thing to undergo. Despite that Seren took on additional training to treat animals and magical non-humans. Because of the extra work her Healer training took an extra year to complete and the rest of her training took an additional two. It was six years in all, twice as long as standard Healer training requires, before Seren had all of the certifications she sought. At the end of it she was licensed to work on a wide spectrum of beings and creatures. She took a post in Romania as a medical examiner at their main hospital, Sfântul Dragomir, and was regularly lent out to the dragon preserve whenever something went wrong with one of the dragons. Seren had considered going back to the UK after her training was completed but she had quickly fallen in love with Romania. It held a magic for her that had nothing at all to do with wizards. Romania whispered and sang to Seren. She’d often spend her free weekends hiking and camping in the forests just to listen to the voices of the trees and sometimes the streams. At first she’d thought she was slightly mental but colleagues confessed much the same happening to them, though it was not a widespread occurrence. It seemed Romania loved Seren just as much as she loved it. She felt free there. In 2005 Seren finally put in a transfer request for the British Ministry of Magic. She didn't really want to leave Romania, but after eight years of being away her mother had practically started to beg Seren to come home. Sian Fawcett even just near begging was a freakish event of nature and should really never be witnessed, so Seren caved. Her parents even bought her a welcome home present, which was a home actually. They gifted her with a cottage in Hay-on-Wye, Wales which overlooked the River Wye. Seren was smitten enough that having to endure the English at large was even an acceptable fate. She’d originally thought to work for St. Mungo’s in much the same capacity she’d worked at Sfântul Dragomir. Once she was back in the UK, however, she was given a proposition. She could go to St. Mungo’s where she would end up with much less to do and serve under several other people where she’d been the second in line in Romania, or she could work for the Regulators. With the Regulators she’d get to focus on and truly utilise the training she had with magical non-humans and magical animals. She’d get to look at new magical beings that weren’t on record and who were created by the wild magics released during the war. She’d get to dissect them, write the text on them and figure out what made them tick. She’d be responsible for figuring out how they tick and therefore how they could be combated. There was absolutely no power on earth that would have made her say no. When she said yes the Regulators gained someone who effectively reversed the DoM jurisdiction to take away the creatures their field agents got hurt bringing in. Odds are with her training she was better qualified than the Unspeakables to deal with them, a fact which may or may not have been true but has thus far been untested. They gained someone who was more than capable of the job and therefore it gave the Regulators the ability to fight the DoM when they attempted to swoop in and take over a case they’d already done all the work on. Unfortunately, the DoM was still more than able to swoop in and take over cases before a specimen reached Seren’s capable, and eagerly waiting, hands. Until the Regulators hired a full-time Healer, Anthony Goldstein, Seren also doubled as a human Healer for the really bad injuries. Anything that wasn’t life threatening she still shunted them off to St. Mungo’s for. Anyone who died in the field came to her first so she could look for a cause of death related to any magics involved with the case during which they were killed investigating. Only after she went through things did the body go to St. Mungo’s. Once Anthony came into the Regulators, however, all human detail went to him with Seren serving as emergency back up if it was dire and he needed the help. In June of 2008 Seren's research division of the Regulators was almost entirely cut. She and Everrett were laid off due to the budget cuts along with most of the people who worked under her. Viola Marlowe has been brought in to largely take over the work Seren used to do to whatever extent it shall be done in the future. The Department of Mysteries also began attempts to seduce her to the dark side shortly before the budget cuts took her position with the Regulators away. In late July of 2008 she finally took the Oath, after having agreed and gone through all the necessary psychological evaluations and the like. Trivia • Seren is fluent in Welsh, English, Latin and Romanian (in that order). • Flying and Seren do not get along. She adores being up in the air but she's really awful on a broom. If she's on the back while someone else drives then she's entirely content. • She tries very hard to not ramble on incessantly about all the things in her head but sometimes her censor button breaks and Seren doesn't realise she's speaking aloud while she rambles on and on, having entire debates with herself sometimes. • Seren has a collection of bones. Skulls, femurs, ulnas, vertebra, anything she can get her hands on she will collect. Species is unimportant. • The largest room in her entire house is her library and she really only sees some parts of the rest because she has to walk from the library to her bedroom, when she remembers. There are two rooms that she honestly can't remember what the inside of looks like or what she may have put in them, but she always ends up doing something else before she can remember to go look. • While Seren is completely oblivious where all things romantic are concerned (right down to being entirely clueless that she's being flirted with unless it is extremely obvious), she is all too aware that she finds well-placed sarcasm excessively hot. The misuse or over use of sarcasm, however, simply makes her sad. • She's entirely hopeless with any sort of baking. Cookies, pies, cakes...everything seems to explode, light on fire or turn into a lovely charcoal-like substance. Anything else she can manage just fine. • The only pet Seren thinks is capable of surviving her ownership is a cat due to the schedule she keeps and her accidentally neglectful nature caused by her tunnel vision focus. This is also her problem with ever thinking about having children. She loves children immensely and often simply thinks of them as more astute and far more honest versions of adults. She'd love to be a mother but she's fairly certain she'd be rubbish at it and do things like forget to feed them for days-- just like she forgets to eat herself for days at a time--or leave them at the market. • She doesn't mean it metaphorically that the River Wye or the forest around her house speaks to her. It is not like conversing with a person at all, but she can understand it just as clearly. This is due to her connection to the magic inherent in nature through her training in Celtic Ritual Magic. • Seren is left hand dominate, but when she was in Romania training as a healer she was forced to learn to cast with her right hand. It is awkward for her but once she adjusts she can cast just as easily with her right hand. Healing spells always work slightly better than others do when she uses her right hand, though. • Growing up Seren's only stuffed animal she had at all was a happy, stuffed heart she named Cari (short for Cariad, a Welsh term of endearment that equates to the English "love"). It was charmed to beat constantly • "Seren" is Welsh for "Star." Test Scores O.W.L.s Ancient Runes - O Arithmancy - A Astronomy - P Care of Magical Creatures - E Charms - O Defence Against the Dark Arts - A Herbology - O History of Magic - P Potions - E Transfiguration - O N.E.W.T.s Ancient Runes - O Potions - E Care of Magical Creatures - O Charms - O Herbology - E Transfiguration - O The Ravenclaw Scorpio (October 23 - November 21) the Scorpion. Fixed, water, yin - planetary rulers: Mars and Pluto. Keywords: "I DESIRE" Scorpio is the eighth house of the Zodiac and governs the genitalia. Positive traits include magnetic charisma, ambition, drive, a penetrating mind, curiosity, intensity of focus, emotional depth, consistency, persistence, willpower, and the potential for inner transformation and regeneration; negative traits include selfishness, obsessiveness, vindictiveness, hypersensitivity, ruthlessness, cynicism, an inability to understand the word "moderation," and jealousy. It is said that Scorpios embody both the best and the worst of all that are born under the stars, and that there are three kinds of Scorpios: wicked scorpions, cunning serpents, and saintly eagles. What each Scorpio becomes is entirely up to that Scorpio. Curiosity killed the cat; satisfaction brought it back. If ever a wizard exhibited a danger of self destruction from too much knowledge, surely it was a Ravenclaw Scorpio. It doesn't matter whether the pet obsession this week is botany, Muggle pop music, or the history of the Necronomicon, if a Ravenclaw Scorpio wants to know about it, then he will, and damn the consequences: full speed ahead. Indeed, just mention that a subject is "forbidden" and you'll see a peculiar light shine in their eyes. They sneak into locked rooms after dark, and forge passes to the restricted library sections. The lust for arcane knowledge is both the greatest strength of these wizards, and the Achilles heel. It's best to indulge them whenever possible and let the obsession burn itself out; and, when this is not possible, to explain in great detail and absolutely *no* patronizing why the subject must not be explored. These Ravenclaws are quiet and secretive, but don't be fooled by that calm and placid exterior; they have hidden depths. The Humours Earth is associated with the Malancholic humour and Water is associated with the Phelgmatic. A thinker, curious, rational and calm are all obvious aspects to Seren's personality. Kind, considerate and observant are as well. Seren is cerebral. She thinks, and possibly over thinks, everything. Her curiosity about how thing work (all things) is her driving force in life. This curiosity fuels her observations and thoughts, her unceasing process of figuring things out until she's unwoven all the mystery of a thing, concept, person, etc. Almost always she's calm and rational (if she's not busy being playful and leaving mice or eyeballs for people). More than any of these reasons, however, is Seren's bond to the actual, physical elements of earth and water. When she needs calming, grounding or comfort it is nature she turns to. Most often it is earth that she turns toward, going into the woods or forests. She'll spend days walking and hiking through forests. Seren says the forest speaks to her and most people think she means that metaphorically, but she doesn't. She'll have entire conversations with trees, with fields. This extends to bodies of water such as rivers, streams and lakes. Anything bigger she doesn't quite connect to, but the smaller bodies of water will also speak to her in rolling whispers. There is, literally, a connection she can feel that pulls her toward nature where she's surrounded by the element of earth and toward water. This is why she lives on the River Wye surrounded by trees. Meta Journal: lloergan PB: Kate Mara Player: Cozza Category:Characters Category: Unspeakables